Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tiny Miracles

(Photo courtesy Leah Arnold Vallis)

These are 7 of the 10 babies born this past year in the Hilltop 2nd Ward, Concord CA Stake.  This has been a small ward with mostly older permanent members and a few younger couples and families moving in and out for school and such every fall.  It encompasses about 30 miles, including some very rough cities (Richmond) and has an attendance every Sunday of around 100 people.  Those of us who actually attend are definitely put to work and kept busy:)

There has been a lot of talk about what to do about this ward.  Get rid of it?  Combine it with another one?  About a year and a half ago the Stake President said we would "grow the ward." Everyone's job was to find new members and reactivate members who weren't attending.

Well, it has grown! I don't know when there have ever been this many babies in the history of this ward. And every single baby in this picture has an awesome story behind it.  I mean, what baby isn't a miracle?  But truly, these babies are special.  Two of us thinking we were done having kids, and pleasantly surprised.  Another two not really able to even have children, one of whom being told it was impossible, and surprise.

We have loved being in this ward and being able to serve in the callings we have.  This is not an easy area, and I have complained about the Bay Area more than once, but we would not trade our experiences here for anything.  We have met some amazing people and truly learned what a ward family is. We just love these great moms, their babies, and the wonderful people of the Hilltop 2nd Ward. I know these families have all been blessed because of who they are and how much they serve those around them.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Ten babies in one year! That is awesome. Ellie will have so many little friends to play with.

Kristi said...

That is so cool!!! Adorable pictures too! Our ward is almost to the number of splitting so they've set a goal for us to have 75 more members by the end of the year (either new or re-activated)so that we can have two wards instead of one. Your ward did a great job of finding a third way to "grow" the ward!!! Love it!

Angela Okada said...

All I have to say is WOW!!! The of the babies are incredible and I love that each baby was a miracle. This post just put a smile on face!!!! Miss ya!!!!

Brooke said...

Love it-we were in a branch when we moved here but only because we have the opposite problem of you-too many young members/families. I kid you not-the Jr. primary has 96 kids in it with an additional 35 in nursery and another 40 or so in Sr. primary. We're a ward now but with only a handful of high priests and it's super loud on Sundays :)